{"id":1554,"date":"2013-02-20T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T10:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/when-perception-matters-most-david-bathsheba-and-hearing-the-victims-story.html"},"modified":"2013-02-20T10:29:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T10:29:00","slug":"when-perception-matters-most-david-bathsheba-and-hearing-the-victims-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/when-perception-matters-most-david-bathsheba-and-hearing-the-victims-story.html","title":{"rendered":"When Perception Matters Most: David, Bathsheba, and Hearing the Victim’s Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

by Crystal St. Marie Lewis<\/a>
R3 Contributor<\/span>

<\/span>First published at Crystal St. Marie Lewis Blog<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

One of my classes is on the subject of human sexuality in scripture. This week, we were required to read the story of David and Bathsheba. We were also required to read two different commentaries of our own choosing. For those of you who aren\u2019t familiar with it, the famous story of David and Bathsheba opens like this:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, \u201cShe is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.\u201d (Uriah was away at battle.) Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period. Then she returned home. Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, \u201cI\u2019m pregnant.\u201d (2 Samuel 11:2-5, NLT)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I chose to use the brief commentary inside my Life Application Study Bible (LASB) and my copy of The New Interpreter\u2019s Study Bible (NISB). The LASB is a conservative publication that is mostly marketed to Evangelicals; the NISB is a far more liberal publication that is marketed to people who are interested in higher criticism.<\/span><\/div>\n
I quickly noticed two different interpretations of the story: The NISB (the liberal study tool) says that David\u2019s act was \u201crape.\u201d Its editors consider Bathsheba a victim. However, the LASB depicts David as a fallen king, and brands Bathsheba an\u00a0adulteress<\/em>\u2026 See the following excerpt from The New Interpreter\u2019s Study Bible:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
David destroys the family of one of his most trusted warriors. In the past, he has been ruthless (8:2) but he was always concerned with public opinion (see notes on 4:1-12). Both are evident in this story of\u00a0rape<\/strong>\u00a0and murder\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u2026Having learned that the men of Bathsheba\u2019s family are away and that\u00a0she is defenseless<\/strong>, David sends people to bring her to him.\u00a0She is not consulted [about her own choice in the matter]..<\/strong>. Even if she is not physically forced to be David, she is\u00a0nonetheless powerless<\/strong>\u00a0against the king and the servants he has already used against her. (pg. 455, emphasis mine)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And now, see this excerpt from the Life Application Study Bible:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
David put both Bathsheba and Joab in difficult situations. Bathsheba knew\u00a0adultery<\/strong>\u00a0was wrong, but to refuse a king\u2019s request could mean punishment or death\u2026 We sometimes face situations with only two apparent choices, and both seem wrong. When that happens, we must not lose sight of what God wants. The answer may be to seek out\u00a0more choices<\/strong>. By doing this, we are likely to find a choice that honors God. (pg. 521, emphasis mine)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Bathsheba\u2019s Weakness and Mistake:<\/strong>\u00a0She committed adultery<\/span>
Lessons from Her Life:<\/strong>\u00a0While we must live with the natural consequences of our sins, God\u2019s forgiveness of sin is total. (Profile of Bathsheba, pg. 555)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019ll be honest and say that when I read the conservative commentary, I couldn\u2019t believe what I was seeing. Contrary to any of the dialogue in the story and contrary to the context, the editors interpret Bathsheba\u2019s post-menstrual ritual bath as an act of seduction.<\/span><\/div>\n
They don\u2019t bother to consider that Bathsheba likely thought she was alone and unseen while bathing in the courtyard. After all, as James Freeman notes in\u00a0Manners and Customs of the Bible<\/span>, \u201cthe bath in which Bathsheba was washing was secluded from all ordinary observation\u201d\u2026 The LASB\u2019s editors also don\u2019t consider that Bathsheba likely missed her husband and longed for him (after all, she grieved when he was killed later in the story). Finally, they don\u2019t consider that she may have been terrified when David\u2019s messengers came for her.<\/span><\/div>\n
Instead, the LASB\u2019s editors write that she \u201cmay have been rash in bathing where she may have been seen,\u201d and that upon hearing the king\u2019s request, she should have \u201csought another option\u201d to avoid committing her sin. (What kind of \u201cother option\u201d could a woman\u2013 a piece of property with no status of her own\u2013 have presented to the most powerful and most ruthless human being in the land?)<\/span><\/div>\n
As I\u2019ve reflected on the David and Bathsheba story, I\u2019ve thought about the attitudes that often surround sexual violence in our own society. There is still some belief that women who wear \u201csexy\u201d clothing are \u201cinviting\u201d sexual assault, and that the solution to a rash of rapes is to\u00a0 impose a \u201cprotective curfew\u201d on law-abiding women. Like Bathsheba, women are expected to \u201cchoose another option\u201d\u2013 another route to work, another outfit, or another shade of lipstick. We don\u2019t hear as much chatter about the real issue. We don\u2019t hear solutions that will address the behaviors of men whose inner demons have overcome them. We seek to fix the victim, and not the victimizer.<\/span><\/div>\n
As I\u2019ve explained in my paper about this topic, the conservative editors wander close to the real issue when they write that Bathsheba\u2019s refusal \u201ccould mean punishment or death\u201d\u2026 They touch lightly on power abuse, on coercion, and on the terrible status occupied by women in scripture\u2026 But then, the editors back away from the real issues and turn this very complicated matter into something black-and-white. In their effort to determine which \u201csins\u201d were committed, they target the victim. The editors found a way to assign culpability to a woman who barely spoke at all in the story. It\u2019s almost as if David stripped her of her power and dignity, and the editors stripped her of her right to have her story heard.<\/span><\/div>\n
As John Shelby Spong wrote in\u00a0Living In Sin<\/span>, the LASB\u2019s editors asked the wrong questions when it came to David and Bathsheba. They asked about sexual sin when they should\u2019ve asked about power\/powerlessness\u2013 and in so doing, they drew what I feel is the wrong conclusion.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Crystal St. Marie LewisR3 ContributorFirst published at Crystal St. Marie Lewis Blog One of my classes is on the subject of human sexuality in scripture. This week, we were required to read the story of David and Bathsheba. We were also required to read two different commentaries of our own choosing. For those of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Perception Matters Most: David, Bathsheba, and Hearing the Victim's Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Crystal St. Marie LewisR3 ContributorFirst published at Crystal St. Marie Lewis BlogOne of my classes is on the subject of human sexuality in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/when-perception-matters-most-david-bathsheba-and-hearing-the-victims-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When Perception Matters Most: David, Bathsheba, and Hearing the Victim's Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Crystal St. Marie LewisR3 ContributorFirst published at Crystal St. Marie Lewis BlogOne of my classes is on the subject of human sexuality in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/02\/when-perception-matters-most-david-bathsheba-and-hearing-the-victims-story.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-20T10:29:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/files\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-tZRyNF_qB8A\/T4jcCJt6VmI\/AAAAAAAAAfI\/smtI6Bq_DnI\/s200\/CSL+2011+2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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